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Florence Pugh has admitted she struggled with the backlash she received for dating director Zach Braff due to their 21-year age gap.
In a new interview on the Louis Theroux podcast, the actress, 29, reflected on how ‘hurt’ she was by the torrent of abuse she received on social media over her relationship.
Florence and former Scrubs star Zach split in 2022 after three years of dating.
The actress said she has no regrets defending their romance at the time after she told trolls they had ‘no right to educate’ her on her private life.
Now three years on, Florence told Louis: ‘It was an insane amount of abuse being hurled at my relationship just because there was an age gap.
‘I stood up for it, and I stood up for him and I stood up for me just being allowed to do whatever the f**k I wanted to do, and that kind of did actually change a few people’s minds.
Florence Pugh has admitted she struggled with the backlash she received for dating director Zach Braff due to their 21-year age gap
In a new interview on the Louis Theroux podcast, the actress, 29, reflected on how ‘hurt’ she was by the torrent of abuse she received on social media over her relationship
‘I’ll always defend people that I love, I will always stand up for them.
‘I’ll always make sure that if there needs to be a reset and there needs to be a bit of a smack on the wrist, I will do that because it’s not fair that so much of your life gets to have jabs.’
She continued: ‘With relationships and with romance in this world, it doesn’t matter how much you speak on it or how little you speak on it, people don’t care.
‘They want a story; they want a reality show. It doesn’t really matter how much you say you love someone or how much they make you happy. If they don’t like them and it doesn’t fit that image that they want of you, they don’t care. And I think that hurt me.’
Zach and Florence were first introduced while on the set of a short film he was making, but it wasn’t until April of 2019 that they were linked when they were spotted holding hands.
However, the couple stayed silent and didn’t confirm the relationship until December of that year.
A Good Person was filmed in 2021, when the couple were still together, and they were apparently together at least until April of 2022 when she wished him a happy 47th birthday.
Florence admitted for the first time she is in a relationship but kept coy on her boyfriend’s identity. The Don’t Worry Darling star was previously linked to Peaky Blinders actor Finn Cole
Elsewhere in the interview, Florence revealed she had a breakdown when a past relationship ended and she heartbreakingly turned to self-harm.
The actress said she hid her ‘pains, issues and worries’ from all her loved ones as she felt they ‘weren’t worthy’.
She said: ‘I think for a long time I didn’t expose that part of my life, to even my friends. Then of course you find yourself in a pit or in a mess.
‘When you are hurting your body, you know when you are not sleeping or you’re drinking too much or you’ve got the s***s because you’re so anxious, that’s your body’s screaming at you.
‘I found myself injured, I would injure myself. I’d be chopping and I’d like, chop huge chunks out of my hands. I’ve just never done that since.
‘My body was just like, in full panic mode. I was injuring myself in order to look after myself, which is a funny thing of my body asking for help. I think it became increasingly obvious that something wasn’t right, but hindsight’s always a funny thing.’
On the podcast, Florence admitted for the first time she is in a relationship and that it feels ‘very good’ – but kept coy on her boyfriend’s identity.
The Don’t Worry Darling star was previously linked to Peaky Blinders actor Finn Cole, 30.
The couple have been friends for years and were first reported to be secretly dating after they were seen slipping out of the after-party for the London premiere of Netflix hit The Perfect Couple together in September.
They had previously been seen partying at Glastonbury Festival together, while Florence had been spotted liking his Instagram posts and shared her delight when it was revealed he had landed a role in the theatre production Red Speedo.
